The Vital Force Archive

Rebecca Paulson opened her fall and winter classes in Colorado by comparing TCC to the life of trees: rooted grounding, a heart center, dropping leaves before snow, and winter dormancy as self-care.

Sandy McAlister recounts the second Saturday teacher Zoom gatherings, including September's discussion of TCC polarity and which movements have it, October's swap of class handouts, and tips on Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Debby McLister recounts teaching Bass Drum in her first beginner class, where a fist-and-release hand exercise worked until week two, so she brought 12-inch balloons to keep hands cupped and apart.

Kay Rydeen describes "set induction," the teaching trick of opening a class with a prop or placard, from a French professor's bulging pockets to dimes taped on a cardboard foot outline.

Drawing on three decades as a Special Education teacher, Linda Braga argues that partner practice, where classmates observe each other and trade feedback, should be a standard part of every TCC class.

Guy Kent compares solo and group practice after the 2022 teacher conference, recalling forty-minute sessions with Justin in Albuquerque and suggesting practitioners time their own practice against that mark.

Ron Richardson turns five things his parents told him as a child, from "Pick up your feet" to "Stand on your own two feet," into practical reminders for TCC students about posture, stepping, breathing and independence.

Jeneth Rundle describes teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih over Zoom while her student Angela recovered from knee replacement surgery, and teaching from a chair herself during her own knee trouble.

April Leffler compares the t'an t'ien to a dog walker and the arms to the dogs, then describes trying the analogy in class, including students whose hands reached up Daughter on the Mountaintop before the center moved.

Richard Karasik argues that teachers inevitably break T'ai Chi Chih into parts such as flexible wrists, hip swivels and moving from the t'an t'ien, but the student must reassemble them, as sodium and chlorine become salt.

Lisa Stroyan's notes from Sandy McAlister's monthly Zoom teacher practice cover December's discussion of movement order and January's on drop-in classes, with Zoom tips and handout suggestions.

Linda Braga recounts seeing a newspaper photo that led her to Valerie Lawson Smith's class, her 1985 San Leandro accreditation with Justin Stone, Partner Practice teaching, and the frigid Green Gulch retreat.

Jessica Lewis, who teaches veterans in chronic pain for the Federal T'ai Chi for Veterans program, describes using very few words in a first class so students discover the Chi themselves.

Lisa Otero, who sought accreditation only to have people to practice with, describes returning to teaching in summer 2021 after COVID and argues that group practice requires everyone to sync up, like musicians following a conductor.

Hannah Hedrick recounts a long neighbor dispute over invasive Himalayan raspberries that reached court twice and even interrupted her class, and the intention of beneficence that came out of her practice.

Sharon Sirkis collects four classroom moments, including Ruth's shaking key-ring bracelet, silly putty mistaken for chewing gum during Pulling Taffy, and a student who called Anugama's music a funeral march.

Susan Corey applies the Laban and Bartenieff Effort/Shape Method, with its continua of flow, weight, time and space, to T'ai Chi Chih instruction, identifying the practice as a light, sustained, direct glide.

Trish Winger balanced a hardcover book on her head during class to demonstrate a still torso, and found her students' backs straightened and their movements grew smoother.

Sharon Sirkis collects five teaching mishaps from her early years, including a senior center student who wanted to push away his wife and a chat attempted with a man on silent retreat.

Trish Winger's students kept missing the mark on Working the Pulley, so she watched herself in the mirror and recast the movement as a pie throwing machine, with one pie handed over after another.

When COVID-19 closed her senior center and gym classes, Nancy Rolph-Johnson moved practice onto the grass of two Long Beach and Bellflower parks, masked and ten feet apart, with student comments included.

Sharon Sirkis collects three classroom moments: a student telling her late, flustered teacher to get grounded, a class inventing its own Six Healing Sounds, and Howard's jigsaw puzzle Show and Tell.

Janet Knapp Starr invites accredited teachers to the T'ai Chi Chih Teacher Circle Facebook group, where members have traded advice on Zoom teaching and pandemic class agreements.

Terry Jennings asks Hannah Hedrick whether teachers should charge for classes, and Hedrick describes teaching free for cancer, HIV and polio survivors while urging Terry to seek paid events.

Amy Tyksinski taught her first Zoom class to school families who appeared only as name plates, and offers practical tips on voice, contrasting socks for visible weight shifts, and trusting her own groundedness.

Fran and Jim Kaib recount the day ten intellectually disabled adults and their aides joined their small public library class unannounced, and how wordless modeling and Joyous Breath brought laughter and calm.

Sharon Sirkis recounts three classroom moments: an 87-year-old confused all his life, Roland finding his knee's sweet spot in front of the TV, and a coronavirus misunderstanding needing quick damage control.

Rev. Richard Davis uses his daughter's mispronounced "cumpf-ter-full" to show how uncorrected habits linger, then argues that counting repetitions traps awareness in the head instead of in the moving, grounded body.

Linda Jones lays out the teaching rules for David-Dorian Ross's Tai Chi for Vets program: verbal safety cues and humor are welcome, but no individual corrections, no detailed demonstration and no expectation that veterans memorize the movements.

Judy Chancey lists the practical steps to take while awaiting TC4VETS certification, from offering pro bono VA volunteer classes and meeting VFW commanders to practicing cues without left and right.